The Croning
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The Croning
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Narrated by:
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Emily Zeller
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By:
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Laird Barron
About this listen
Strange things exist on the periphery of our existence, haunting us from the darkness looming beyond our firelight. Black magic, weird cults, and worse things loom in the shadows. The Children of Old Leech have been with us from time immemorial. And they love us....
Donald Miller, geologist and academic, has walked along the edge of a chasm for most of his nearly 80 years, leading a charmed life between endearing absent-mindedness and sanity-shattering realization. Now, all things must converge. Donald will discover the dark secrets along the edges, unearthing savage truths about his wife Michelle, their adult twins, and all he knows and trusts. For Donald is about to stumble on the secret... of The Croning.
From Laird Barron, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of The Imago Sequence and Occultation, comes The Croning, a debut novel of cosmic horror.
©2012 Laird Barron (P)2012 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Editor reviews
Laird Barron's debut novel plays to his strengths as a short story writer by fragmenting the chapters with a mind suffering from senile dementia. Flashbacks and forgetfulness build character of Don, a doomed man walking the edge of cosmic horror that the listener alone perceives, like a killer waiting in a closet.
The delicate-voiced Emily Zeller highlights how expertly and carefully Barron chooses his words, and also allows The Croning's horror to sneak up and stab the listener when it unexpectedly rears its hideous head. The quiet, exacting sweetness of Zeller's performance offsets the coldness of Barron's universe, its indifference to human suffering, and the sureness of its ultimate victory.
Critic reviews
What listeners say about The Croning
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- artful
- 09-08-24
Super creepy
Extremely well written with rich fascinating characters and credible realism. Excellent.
I look forward to reading more books by this author.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- michelle
- 16-12-21
Seemed all over the place
I love this performer and she did great with the characters as always but I found this very hard to listen to it seemed to jump all over the place
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sidney Roundwood
- 24-09-22
A thoroughly enjoyable journey to cosmic horror
I really enjoyed this title. The story is a great journey featuring cosmic horror and terrifying adversaries. It is slow in parts, but is a great slow-burn. I hope you'll feel rewarded if you persevere to the end - I was very pleased I did.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alex L
- 16-02-24
Modern cosmic horror masterpiece
The apex and unifying masterpiece of his old leech Mythos, a must listen or read for any fan of lovecraftian horror.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Stephen Copperthwaite
- 18-08-22
Truly horrific! (narration)
Loved the book - found the narration not up to scratch. Misspent words and a voice that doesn't really do the cosmic horror justice.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 12-12-22
A surprising tale of twists and turns
I was pleasantly surprised by the story. It was rich and highly enjoyable. It twists and turns through reality and fantasy until you don’t know which way is up!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Paul
- 13-03-23
There is a payoff, but it's a long old slog
This book had interesting ideas but unfortunately just seemed like a snippets of random points in the lives of a married couple, most of which are very dull and drawn out.
The intro is a 1 hour retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, and then it's a mish mash of memories from the lives of the main characters.
The end payoff is decent, but it comes in the last hour and is quite revelatory. There really isn't much in the way of clues as to what's going on for the first 7 hours.
The narrator did a good job but was the wrong person for me. The main character is a man so it seems strange that a female was chosen.
It was part of the plus catalogue so I can't complain, but I definitely would have returned it if I used a credit.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ed
- 24-01-23
Entertaining
Not my usual genre but enjoyed the mystery and surreal story telling and was a satisfying story arc.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Rose
- 26-03-16
quack novelist selling suspect literature to a gullible public
This book has what I have come to term the emperor's new clothes syndrome written all over it. In other words I'm not exactly surprised it won a horror award. it's just bad enough to be the kind of thing judges go for because they probably haven't read half the cooks shortlisted and it adds prestige to the title making it easier to sell to the public who love it just because it's won an award and they feel they just have to like it. They don't actually and not everybody does. I don't for one.
The narator is very good. it's just a shame she had to read such dross as this. It was written for television by a writer who, like so many others, is too dumb even to be aware that a question mark is not followed by the word 'said' but then as a reader you just have to get used to that.
If you like visual effects and have enough imagination to see the movie potential in this book then you might get something out of this. The plot is really pretty good. It's just the writing of it that lets it down.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Call me Bob
- 28-10-21
The modern Lovecraft and much more.
First of all I love Lovecraft but I got hooked when I was younger.
Without spoiling anything this is much better and it is actual horror that at moments made me feel uneasy and totally in the moment.
It is very well written, the story telling technique is gripping and at times a little dizzying.
And the ending is very satisfying and proper.
I love id!
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2 people found this helpful